Who are Croatians and where do they come from?
Modern Croatia (official name Republic of Croatia; Croatian Hrvatska), a
European country seated along the Adriatic Sea, has been established in 1991
after breaking from Yugoslavia. Croatia was a part of Yugoslavia since 1918, and
before that, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from 1868 to 1918. For more on
Croatia’s history, geography and its people check - www.croatians.com.
Majority of Croatian immigrants arriving in the United States at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century were listed as coming from Austria, while those arriving after 1918 were lumped together with other South Slavs, Slovenians, Serbians, Montenegrins and Macedonians as Yugoslavians. Frequently, Croatians in the United States have identified themselves in terms of regional identity: for example, as Dalmatians from the many islands and ancient cities in the Adriatic region of Dalmatia, as Istrians from the Istrian peninsula in northern Adriatic, as Slavonians from the plains of eastern Croatia or Li?ani from the mountainous region of Lika.
While the majority of Croatians in the United States came from the territory of today’s Croatia, others trace their origin to regions and places that are outside the boundaries of the modern Republic of Croatia. Such is the case with Croatians from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burgenland in Austria, Bunjevci-Croatians from Vojvodina in Serbia, and Bokelji from Boka Kotorska in Montenegro. Therefore the name “Croatians” applies to ethnic Croats regardless of whether their origin is Croatia or other countries. As a consequence, by illuminating the map of the modern Republic of Croatia on the wall in front of you, you can see the country of origin of the majority but not all Croatians in the United States.
Croatia has also been the origin of many immigrants that belong to other ethnic groups: most notably Serbs from Croatia’s regions of Lika and Zagora, but also Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Jews and Muslims that in various historical times migrated to the Croatian lands.
Croatians in the United States
The Croatian immigrants started arriving in the United States in large numbers around the middle of the 19th century, although documentary evidence suggests their presence in the New World as early as the 1600s (Adam S. Eterovich, Croatian Pioneers in America 1685-1900. San Carlos, CA: Ragusan Press, 1979).
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Florida were the first to have attracted the early Croatian immigrants, mostly fishermen and seamen from Dalmatia and its many islands. The Dalmatian city of Dubrovnik and the surrounding villages, together with islands Bra?, Hvar and Vis sent many early migrants to California as well, where they established fishing colonies and engaged in agriculture (vineyards and orchards). But it was the coal mines and steel mills in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana that became the main destinations during the peak of the immigration wave at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. There was practically no village in the entire Croatia that didn’t have someone working in the United States. Between 1880 and World War I, some 400,000 Croatians arrived in America (Ivan ?izmi?, Ivan Mileti? and George J. Prpi?. From the Adriatic to Lake Earie: A History of Croatians in Greater Cleveland. Eastlake, OH and Zagreb, Croatia: American Croatian Lodge, Inc. and Institute of Social Sciences, 2000).
Early Croatian immigrants came to Arizona mostly via Nevada and California, where many tried their luck in gold mines first. In the 1880s and 1890s, large number of Croatian immigrants settled in Arizona’s mining towns of Bisbee, Globe and Jerome. A former Arizona Governor, Rose Mofford comes from a mining family of Perica of Globe. John Pintek, the son of a Bisbee miner, served in the Arizona legislature as a Senator. Another Bisbee miner’s son, Adam S. Eterovich is the founder and President of the Ragusan Press in San Carlos, California, devoted to research and writing about Croatians in the United States.
For more on the Croatian immigrants in the United States see The Croatian Immigrants in America by George Prpic (1975), Hrvati u ?ivotu Sjedinjenih Ameri?kih Dr?ava by Ivan ?izmi? (1986) and numerous publications by Adam S. Eterovich at www.croatians.com.
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